The Clown
Clownism
Fantastic swedish pop with a dreamcoat
This is the debut album by The Clown. It\'s also the first.
The Clown is Henrik Andersson. He\'s not a real clown though. The name was born after Henrik performed a show of these songs dressed in a clown costume. Henrik is based in Malmo, Sweden.
Clownism features 10 songs. You might also notice that there are 10 buttons on the cover. 10 is a nice round number. 10 fingers, 10 toes, 1 Clown.
It\'s tempting to describe the music on this album by saying something silly like \"pop that rocks\" or \"rock that swings\" or... it\'s sensitive music that sometimes very loud, sometimes quiet. Melody is king.
What does the music feel like? Joy, sorrow, anger, quietness, madness, surprise, longing. The Clown\'s music is a circus of emotion. Just don\'t feed the zebras.
Henrik is dreaming of performing in Paris, New York, Berlin and Tokyo. He visited most of these places before in his previous band Ray Wonder.
Henrik was a founder member of Ray Wonder, who released several albums. Beck appeared in the Swedish press saying they were his favourite band and then picked them to support him on his UK tour. Henrik was also a member of Hank and Komeda. Also for a very short period he was singer in a punk band called Punjab, but was kicked out for not being cool enough. He was only 10, so he was cooler than they thought.
We want to say The Clown \"rocks\" but we\'re worried you might get the wrong idea. In truth, it “rocks” because there’s not much of a rock attitude. The Clown feels honesty rocks.
Henrik plays almost everything on this album. He wasn\'t trying to be clever, it just turned out that way. Clownism was recorded and produced in late summer 2008 at Hjordisc studios in Malmo.
The Clown live group currently features five people, three girls and two boys. It could get bigger. Anything could happen. Henrik has a dream to play all the songs on this album live backed by a full symphony orchestra.
\"Breaking Up The Band\" is a duet with Miranda Gjerstad who has a golden voice. She\'s a secret weapon.
\"Back To The Root\" features many small contributions from all the members of Ray Wonder, Hank, Komeda, the singer Nina Ramsby as well as Henrik\'s parents and some relatives too. It\'s an autobiographical audio tapestry. And you can dance to it.
The Clownism package was designed by Dan Abbott who has also worked with Muse, Mars Volta, Pink Floyd, Biffy Clyro and Kula Shaker.
The front cover photograph was taken in Henrik\'s kitchen. This place was almost as important as the studio in the making of Clownism.
Pop: Swedish Pop/Rock